Free-will doesn't mean omnipotence. Just because you do not have control over whom you are or what you desire does not mean that you are not making decisions. Various causes cause a conscious person to exist, and then that conscious person makes conscious decisions. I would define free-will as that decision-making-ability, and as such I would say people have free-will. Using that definition of free-will, free-will is compatible with causal determinism. Free will and determinism don't exclude each other. Every action has a reaction. The courses of our lives are but the results of previous actions. However, we possess free will in other to determine the future state of our lives (yes, I'm talking about the Law of Action-Reaction which cannot be separated from the doctrine of reincarnation). To summarize: Our lives are determined to a certain extent by the consequences of our previous actions. Now, in this moment, we possess the free will to think or act in a certain...